Crafts Alive vendors faced with eviction!
The notices were reportedly handed out nearly two weeks ago and were given as a result of the vendors’ inability to make payments towards their rent for the year 2013.
One vendor who asked to remain anonymous said vendors previously met with Works Minister Hon. Mark H. Vanterpool in relation to what they deemed a disparity in the rental costs for the booths at the location but nothing substantial came from the meeting despite promises of action.
According to the source, vendors expressed that some of the shops at the Crafts Alive Village were smaller than others, yet everyone was required to pay the same rental and some felt this was unfair. They were reportedly assured that this would be looked into but said no feedback was ever received on the matter.
The vendors allegedly first received notice of what they would be required to pay in rental fees sometime in April of 2013 but said they were awaiting feedback in order to arrive at a final agreement on the rental cost. Some complained that they found it extremely difficult to meet the rental costs given the state of business at this time.
The vendors were asked to sign lease agreements for the booths they currently occupy at the village and reference was made to this in the letters that were handed out.
Hon. Vanterpool could not be reached for comment up to post time and attempts to reach City Manager Janis Braithwaite-Edwards also proved unsuccessful.
Many of the Crafts Alive Village vendors entered the revamped location on Waterfront Drive in November 2012 after being removed from the former ‘Tent City’ location near the cruise pier dock where they had been plying their wares for an extended period of time.
Commentator, Edmund G. Maduro offered that the entire episode was a disgraceful one and added, “I think it’s very bad what they’re doing. They are trying to destroy our own people and it is a very very sad situation. No government does that to its people because the government must realise that the people are the people they are seeking to lead.”
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48 Responses to “Crafts Alive vendors faced with eviction!”
We were never a welfare Territory. If we don.t strive to help ourselves then we have only ourselves to blame for our failures. Change is never easy but if we use our minds and stop complaining we will be amazed at the doors that will open.
It is not a disgrace for Government to ask venders to pay their rent for having a unit at Craft Alive. It is sad that Mr. Maduro would say that no Government should ask t's citizens to pay what they have agreed to pay. What Mr. Maduro needs to do is to encourage the vendors to be responsible and do the the right thing.
Come on! give Jack his jacket and Jackie her lipstick, these vendors need to do better. Even if some booth bigger, how much bigger is bigger? They measure them? If they did not pay from April, of course it would be hard to pay now, a whole year later. They need to pay up, even if is a payment plan, if they want the space they need to pay. If they not making money, then move let somebody else get the space, end of story.
I do agree though that if you have not paid rent in a year you should have been evicted a long time ago
Pay UP or Shut UP ....Talk done
Stop wasting time and money with these all around deadbeat losers.
Why should the government continue to allow these people to occupy the space for free? Some of you need to get rid of that entitlement attitude. You are not entitled to anything you have to earn it. No one is owed anything so get over it. People in the BVI need to become more enterprising and stop asking government to subsidize everything. The BVI was fast becoming a welfare state under the previous government and now people expect that to continue. The country cannot thrive on loafers and lechers.
Times are changing and we better get some ambition and try to do for ourselves and stop asking government to foot the bill for everything we do. We are the same ones that are quick to talk about government wasting money. Isn't allowing people to go rent free wasting money? Someone has to foot the bill. Craft Alive vendors need to wake up from their slumber and try to sell their products instead of waiting around for people to come breaking down their doors. Stop being so rude and complacent and try to find creative ways of marketing your products and things would be better.
In the Culture of these Virgin Islands we were always taught that " you work for what you want, no one owes you anything." Unlike the US Virgin Islands we do not have a Federal Government to come and bail us out when we get in trouble or when there is a catastrophe. We have always dug deep within ourselves and found the strength to do what was needed.
Craft Alive venders must stop depending on Government to sell their products for them or to advertise for them. vendors. need to start helping themselves instead of waiting on Government. In addition, they should be thankful that they were provided with one of the shops, for there were many who did not succeed in getting one.
vendors cease from complaining about the size of your store. It is the new stores that were recently built that have caused the prices to go up. Your shops were built during a period of higher costs. Be thankful. Pay your rent, or move out and allow someone who is willing and able to honour their contractual agreement to take the shop that you appear not to want.oo
Then there are those at the so-called Craft Market (what is craft about goods from Panama and Miami?) they have all the cruise ship tourists directed to them, there is advertising, a purpose-built place and they can't even pay rent? I am disgusted with the way the places are allocated anyway. A friend of mine from Virgin Gorda who has a trade licence for years and a little craft business couldn't get a space and was told that all the spaces were reserved for the illegal traders who were not even BVIslanders from the cruise ship dock who were in the process of being given trade licences.
Still no matter, because those vendors going right back up to the cruise ship to the new market there. Tent city lives.